


A Wheel much Bigger, much Younger

by Creatife_Clownderer



Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Crack, Gen, Kids being obstinately powerful, This is literally just the kids meeting each other and discovering each other younger, or damn well close
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29472912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Creatife_Clownderer/pseuds/Creatife_Clownderer
Summary: My first foray into these characters, its literally just “what if they were fated to meet earlier and also had more absurd powers”
Relationships: Trisana Chandler & Daja Kisubo & Briar Moss & Sandrilene fa Toren
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	1. 4 little piggies, sitting in their bed

Sandry stared wistfully out the window, soft winds blowing her hair as she waited for her father to get out of his meetings. There was something very much boring about meetings. To many people, too loud, and nothing got done. 

Left little girls bored, too. 

She just wanted to go to the loomhouse, but noooo, Pirisi says that's not Ladylike, she had been there too recently and they’d think (correctly) that she was interested!

It was tragic really. She was only 5 years old, what was she gonna do!

So here she was, sighing melodramatically to the wind. 

And what a sigh! Personally, she was impressed, if it wasn’t so dreadfully boring. 

The only thing of interest was a few strings of silver light that she couldn’t seem to track to their source. 

They didn’t have silver flags, she thought, so why were they simply falagranting about, and just out of reach!

She reached for one, perhaps hoping to learn more, but it seemed to slip past her fingers, no matter how sure she was that she had grabbed it. 

But now she was invested. 

Perhaps if she reached with her mind? It seemed to help when embroidering at least. 

She reached, and suddenly she had it in her hand. 

It felt weird, and was almost invisible. And it seemed to trail off to some other one, but was clearly too wispy to truly do anything. 

Maybe she could spin it? With her MIND?

Her eyes glittered with the possibility. 

When asked about what Sandry did that day, Pirisi said that she played pretend with things she would not touch, for she was no mimander, such works were beyond her. 

Of course, they laughed both of them off, with varying tones of disgust and dismissal. 

Sandry was unconcerned however, as she began to imagine a great wheel, and called for the other parts of the thread to come, extending her own strings as it flew on winds not there. 

* * *

  
  


Tris was holding back tears, her parents having dismissed her during a trading session. 

She knew it was nothing irregular, of course a little girl wouldn’t be at a business meeting, but she heard his voice. 

She heard it, she knew she heard it, dealing and insulting them in hushed tones. 

She shouldn’t have said anything, she knew that. It was quite simple really, but she couldn’t keep her fat mouth shut, and now her parents probably blamed her for another meeting gone wrong. 

The wind whipped around her room, disturbing nothing but her curls as she tried to keep her fat tears invisible. 

Then, like lightning, but with a different feeling, a strand of silver came through the window. 

_“Oh, Hello! Do you know where the silver string goes?”_

_“Who ARE you! What are you doing in my head!”_

_“Wait, you don’t know? Then perhaps the string keeps going…”_

Tris was all of a sudden taken out of her grief by what sounded like all the other gossipy girls, but without the edge she heard so often. 

_“But why are other girls mean to you? Your voice is so clear, like a nightingale’s!”_

_“And? I’m fat, and I don’t like clothes like the other girls, and I summon wind, and hear things on the win-“_

_“OH MY GOD THATS SO COOL! So like, does the wind talk to you! Does it braid your hair!! Can you tell the wind to come to my castle and play with me, I’m so very bored, and then we’ll have 3 people to play with!”_

_“Wait, castle??? Who’s the third?”_

_“You silly!”_

Tris was used to Storms. She was used to winds and lightning and rage and tears. 

But the practically deafening smile in her ears was different. 

It wasn’t cold or hot or fast or soft. 

And maybe she could smile too. 

_“I still don’t know what castle your on about.”_

_“Well then we have to make sure we visit each other!”_

_“I-I don’t even know your name…”_

_“Sandrilene fa Toren! Pleasure to meet you! Also, could you help hold the wheel? I don’t think imaginary spinning wheels should be this big.”_

Suddenly Tris was torn from the conversation, and walked outside. 

She was a FA. 

And she mentioned a-

A Spinn-yep. 

There it was. 

It wasn’t quite there in her eye, but she could see it in a sense. 

A giant wheel. 

And a curved lightning bolt of silver, spinning along with it. 

She couldn’t even see the other side, its sheer size toppling some nations as far as she knew, and she just had to laugh. 

She supposed it was easy enough to imagine giant things. 

Using what she remembered feeling from waterspouts, she stabilized the spin, and began to see it spin faster, heavier, centered. 

Somewhere in the ocean, a massive waterspout rose, higher and higher, visible by sailors. 

“Damn, maybe we should go.”

It seemed most boats agreed.   
  


* * *

  
  


Niko not-yet-goldeye was practically pulling his hair out. 

Why. The FUCK. **DOES A GIANT WHEEL APPEAR IN THE SKY.**

**_AND NO ONE CARE._ **

He wasn’t an unreasonable man, else he couldn't study for so long. 

But sometimes he forgot that there are things that people can’t see. Namely magic. 

Of course, he doesn’t want to think about the shoddy giant wheel in the sky that seems to be weaving the concept of magic through thread as magic. 

Because that didn’t seem good for his health. 

But then it began crackling. With lightning. The very dangerous element. 

Which really began setting off the alarms. 

So he did as any mage talented at scrying does, and scries. 

He didn’t expect the giant axle of the wheel to be a waterspout in the middle of the ocean. 

He was too dazed to see anything else, as the magic became blinding, strands of cloud and heat and magic and thread weaving. As if they were all thread in a child’s lap. 

And really, he might have done something about it. If it wasn’t near his final. 

He’s sure more talented mages have seen it. 

He spent the whole day trying to forget. 

  
  


* * *

Daja was a simple trader girl. Well not yet, as she wasn’t old enough to trade, but she was a quick study, and would be ready by the next year. 

Until the giant wheel in the sky appeared, and suddenly two voices spoke in her head as if they were right beside her. 

_“OH MY GOD THERES ANOTHER PERSON! HI!! TRIS SAY HI!”_

_“Hi.”_

_“See! You can make friends!”_

_“Excuse me, but. Who are you. Why are you in my head.”_

_“We’re spinning! I think(?) that you should probably see something made of silver, long and thin? Thats what happened with Tris!”_

_“Hello. The name is Tris. Please don’t mind Sandry, and be prepared for a very bouillant conversationalist.”_

Daja was thankfully not doing much of import, watching her siblings as her aunt prepared food, so she could talk to the _mimots_ in her head. 

_“Oh, you’re a trader! My nursemaid is a trader, one of the best people I know! Of course I don’t know many…”_

_“Aren’t you a Fa? Can’t your parents organize playdates with the other nobles?”_

_“The other nobles need to like me for that to happen. But I have you! And the wind now!”_

_“The wind. The wind is your friend.”_

_“Not mine, Tris’! It helped make the giant wheel in the sky stable, thats how we reached you!”_

Daja had to look up. 

Sure enough. 

The wheel. A spinning wheel she thought, she knew her family sold them to places where lumber couldn’t grow, but, it seemed flimsy. 

_“Whats it made out of?”_

_“What?”_

_“Whats it made out of. You can’t sell something if you don’t know what it is, and you can’t assure the quality.”_

_“I'm fairly certain its made of dreams and fairy dust, its mostly the imagination from Sandry.”_

_“Yes, I’m just imitating the look, I will be honest. But its working! The string is much stronger, I can practically pluck it! But it still needs more...we can’t stop spinning!”_

_“Wheres the needle.”_

_“Needles! I forgot about that! Where would we put it.”_

_“I dunno! Have you not seen how a spinning wheel works! Why would you choose that!”_

_“It seemed right, and it teased the silver out, didn’t it?”_

_“Maybe we could be the spindles. Since it seems to be a part of us, we could be the spindles?”_

_“And? Whats gonna coil around us? Mimandar silver?”_

_“And its still splitting, it wouldn’t even stick.”_

_“Whats splitting? The string seems fine.”_

_“The lightning and...is that metal? Aren’t, they are strong individually, but they aren’t cohesive.”_

_“A thread that lasts little would sell for nothing. Maybe if its part metal, apply heat?”_

_“I have no idea how to! Do you, Sandry or Daja?”_

_“You already know my name? How? When??”_

_“Comes with the link, we’ll figure out privacy later. It will be fine!”_

_“I’m already thinking up walls, we aren’t all as excitable.”_

_“I like you Tris. Sensible.”_

_“Thank you. Now if you don’t mind, you thought about heat. How so?”_

_“Well, if I had a flame, I believe I might be able to apply it? Heat has felt cool to my skin, so it might be magical enough for this.”_

_“WAIT! I can link you with heat, I think. I sometimes feel volcanic heat, so… would that work.”_

_“I no longer am comforted by your presence. No one who thinks so casually about volcanos is normal.”_

_“Whatever, can you use it.”_

_“Maybe??? I haven’t exactly used a forge.”_

_“Good enough!”_

And suddenly Daja could feel more. 

She could feel the heat beneath the island, the volcano that made it, the metals in the ocean around it. 

But most importantly, the heat Tris spoke about. 

Looking for a safe place to let it trickle out, she found what felt like a spout near the wheel, and tapped it, releasing the heat. 

The vent felt like it rapidly cooled, and suddenly the giant wheel with the strand of silver that seemed so right but so alien began glowing, and it felt right. Together. 

The rapidly not exploding volcano was also cause for relief. For entirely different reasons, albeit, but reasons nonetheless. 

Plus, they didn’t have to deal with coming out as lugsha. 

* * *

  
  


Roach was a quick thief. He learned quick, he nicked quick, he ran quick. 

What else did you need to be quick for. 

Course, when he saw a silver vine coming from the cobbled streets, he had to turn to look. 

That was his first X. 

The voices in his head were much more punishment though. 

_“KAQ! WHY IS THERE A KAQ IN MY HEAD SANDRY!”_

_“A thief! Of course! It was going too well with respectable people! And a BOY! Can we remove him? Is that like, a thing?”_

_“Oh my god! A boy! How scandalous! And he knows how to have fun! Oh I’m going to have so much fun!”_

_“Uhhhh, do I get an explanation, or do I just know about you until I leave prison.”_

_“Wait, prison! I’m not even sharing my mind with a Good Kaq, but a Kaq that gets caught! Otis Bookkeeper will make sure your debt is never paid!”_

_“Not my fault that silver vines distracted me!”_

_“Ooh, vines! I like it! I hope you don’t mind if they leave for the sky!”_

_“Can we get it over with? Just, donate the vines to the great wheel, insert pause for shock, and let's see if there's anyone else. Its getting tiresome to repeat this.”_

_“Wait, you guys did the wheel? Huh? Are you gods? Should I start praying?”_

_“No, the wheel isn’t really there! I don’t think.”_

_“So its a shared hallucination. The judge might as well have sentenced me to death, I don’t think I’ll last the month.”_

_“Are you always such a pessimist?”_

_“I dunno,_ **_Tris_ ** _, are you always bullied by girls dumber than you? Don’t ask questions you know the answer to.”_

_“He’s dodging the question.”_

_“Shhh Daja, lets finish the Circle, its getting tiresome to spin the wheel.”_

_“If its a spinning wheel, whats the string.”_

_“Well the magic, no?”_

_“Well maybe there should be something real too. I dunno, a bracelet or something.”_

_“We don’t exactly have cotton everywhere.”_

_“Where does that come from, Daja?”_

_“Plants, Idiot. Do you really not know?”_

_“Why not just grow it?”_

And in 4 places, simultaneously, cotton began growing from dirt close to 4 6 year olds, growing till its right beside them. And the wheel, now almost finished with its spinning, began to wrap the magic around them, the cotton pulling itself as it spun and weaved itself into 4 identical bracelets. And 4 exhausted children slept.

With matching bracelets of course. 

* * *

  
  


Niklaren Soon-to-be-a-Golden Eye was stressed. Peeved. Woken up by Rosethorn. 

All the same thing really. 

“USELESS! What good is a Seer if all you do is predict useless stuff! You know what happened yesterday! An erupting Volcano, gone cold! A waterspout still, never moved, and with so much water the tides weren’t in! A cotton plant that grew in 3 continents and an island, with roots that would put most weavings to shame!”

“Is the cotton plant still alive?”

“Wilted immediately, you dolt!”

“Should have expected that. So...what?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be able to see things? Important things??”

“Its probably related to the weaving of magic.”

“And you are just going to say that, and act like its normal!”

“Yes.”

“ **_Pray tell WHY”_ **

“I’m not sure I believe it yet.”

And he went back to sleep.


	2. Growth. Whoda thunk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JSJSISJSIJSIS yall leaving comments....i appreciate you so much thank ye

When Sandry woke up, she was alone, her night light undisturbed telling her it was before Pirisi came to wake her up. 

_ “Damn, you really are a moneybag, huh. So now that you’re all awake-like, mind telling us what we did yesterday? It was cool, and I like the leaf band, but its a bit weird to suddenly feel every plant in Deadman’s Quarters.” _

_ “Maybe you could always do that?” _

_ “Don’t you think if I was a magelike, I’d be able to leave, and not be the Thief Lord’s kid?” _

_ “Oh, congratulations on getting out! Also, what else do you explain what happened yes-wait, leaf band?” _

_ “Yeah, the cotton thing that came from the wheel? Its like, twisty like leaves. Grew a bit too, but its plants so it makes sense.” _

_ “Why are you up so early…the sun hasn’t even risen…” _

_ “Don’t know where you are, but its well past sunrise here. A thief can only hang on a branch so long bored, you know.” _

_ “Do you- actually don’t answer the question, kaq. Its not worth thinking.” _

And in perfect trader...thought? Speak? Briar replied with a grin practically dripping from his words  _ “What, you forget that people have less of a home than you?” _

_ “Bah, don’t think sad thoughts, its too early! I want to test what we did last night!” _

_ “What we did, or what you did. I take no part in the whatever that was, I came last!” _

_ “Well you should have been more relevant, did you think of that?” _

_ “Tris, what the hell does that mean.” _

_ “I dunno, I was woken up too early!” _

_ “So, have you guys felt the circle today?” _

_ “No, its been pretty invisible, why?” _

_ “Thats kinda sad, that its only been a day and it disappeared.” _

_ “Disappeared maybe, but its sure as hell did something, every tree I come across sticks to me like I’m its kid!” _

_ “And my hair has been sparking quite a bit since waking…” _

_ “Is this not cause for concern??? Is this normal for kaqs?” _

_ “I haven’t seen anything this morning… but I have felt the string pulse, wanting to be spun.” _

_ “YOU WANT TO MAKE THAT WOPPIN’ WHEEL AGAIN?” _

_ “No, much smaller, the band! The one that we all apparently have! I don’t know how spinning works, maybe the thread is fraying!” _

_ “No! I refuse to lose the only pe-I refuse to lose possible friends.” _

_ “Whats with the bags talk? Are you ashamed of  _ **_liking_ ** _ kids like us?” _

And suddenly it felt like the door closed. It was a weird sensation, having a door close in your head, but immediately all the kids, even Tris, were all over it. 

It continued on for a week, and the kids noticed odd things happening, even for them. 

For Roach, his haunts began to become much livelier, soon sticking on a backlot so that the plants at least stuck to one place. 

He also took to nicking seeds (although not enough the flower shops would notice), and spreading them around the place, making it nice and pretty (they screamed at him for freedom, they didn’t want to be some moneybags neglected treasure. Roach couldn’t help but support them), thin strands of grass sneaking from the cobbles where there are any, and already forming patches where there weren’t.

Daja had much less disruptions, in her opinion. She was never all that hot anymore, which was comfortable she supposed, and she volunteered to go and gather herbs from the gardens on most days, the sun feeling comforting as opposed to pressing as it did before. 

Of course, when she touched metal her mind practically flashed, fascinated, touching and playing and memorizing the metals so that she could see them any time. Gold with certain tints, Iron and his oxides, Copper from different places. All different, but cold so that she couldn’t move it. 

Really a volcano would have been VERY useful if it wouldn’t destroy life as she knew it. 

Tris had to agree when she discovered visiting other people's brains. 

  
  


Tris was used to not being all in one place, so the ability to be out of her mind while perfectly sane was quite convenient, although the winds did get quite a bit louder. Now they began being like dogs, barking with the rumors at the market and the competitors prices, or a mother and child laughing as the child says some silly thing or another, running this way and that and quite frankly making her room the center of the local weather. 

Which she could feel now. 

She couldn’t quite understand the feelings, but the weather sure gave them to her. She was ready for the rain a day early because the easterly wind that loved the sickly sweet romances from the bachelor’s quarters started feeling wet and slow, and the southerly wind that liked the rumors and stories about families had quieted. 

She needed a break sometimes, since she couldn’t even twirl her hair without some spark appearing on her finger, or some drops of rain falling on her nose, making her mother disappointed as she contorted her face in dinner. 

So she traveled the silver not-wind to the others, and began testing the limits of communication. She could see from their eyes (and it was quite fun with Sandry, mocking the nobles in the ways she wanted to), and kept her from going mad with all the wind rumors piling up on her room. 

  
  


Sandry had spun the string every day, finding new strands to incorporate in the blindingly bright band that grew. Of course, spinning got boring, but she couldn’t exactly know anything else, but she saw much more than the others, in the non real territory at least. 

At least the thread had interesting things to say about embroidery, and really she thought they looked very pretty after she got all of it off her fingers. But she wanted to know more, to see more. None of the others really wanted to sit in a weaving class for her to learn while they did nothing (“Roach you are doing NOTHING ELSE WHY WON’T YOU HELP ME” “It’s fun seeing moneybags get their knickers in a twist! Plus I’m banned from the loomhouse on the premise that they don’t let in streetrats until they are clean, and baths are a steaming sop of poison if I did done see one”) so she was stuck looking at the invisible things, tracing over the patterns that magic formed. 

Even Tris couldn’t see them however, or well, in the way she could. According to Tris it was more like clouds, and Daja and Roach never bothered to visit. The patterns shifted like mist, never quite fully there, and she could never see it once the pattern unwove. But at the corner of her eye she could see the coils and braids that did… things. She nodded in the certainty of things they did. 

Given, she figured out that the magic could shift a bit if she played with the threads on the band, but she was too scared of messing it up without knowing anything. Really, she was saddled as the most boring one, even Daja had some treats of power when metal got traded. Which it did. A lot. 

She walked through the marketplace sometimes, following Pirisi as they went to make calls to the other houses, inviting them (she was allowed outside because her mother thought some sun and walking would do her some good) over for lunch in a few days. 

She could practically feel her mind wander over the threads of everyone there, practically blazing (maybe she can weave fire! That would be something!) as it went through every thread, her mind sometimes picking at what seemed out of sorts, moving a thread down or repeating the pattern over a missing hole or patch, fixing threads and removing stitches as she kept the vapid manners of curtsy and what not. 

Of course, that was just a tantalizing taste of something new. 

Maybe her dresses could entertain her. 

Until the mage came into the castle. 

* * *

  
  


Niko, all in all, was having a rather tedious day. Or week really. 

He passed with flying colors, and had graduation in 6 days. To no one’s surprise, his temperament did not change in that time. 

Rosethorn made sure to talk his ear off until he admitted that “Yes the giant string in the sky with horrible implications of some sort is still there and no I don’t know what its doing WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!”

Rosethorn, on her part, figured she was being exceptionally calm when she threatened all the worst punishments if he didn’t get his act together. 

He wished Lark was the one who came to Lightsbridge to stick with him and get him to join Winding Circle. It was so much quieter when she was around. 

On the seventh day, with medal and name in tow, Niklaren Goldeneye had tired out the excuses he could make, and went to the nearest place where whatever the hell touched the earth, hoping for. Something? Anything? That made sense. 

Given, he really shouldn’t expect much. 

But seeing the entire city shimmer in clothes and fabrics wasn’t really what he wanted. 

Practically the entire city had been tangled in so much magic that he was gonna sneeze if any more got in his nose. 

He kinda wished he could just...turn off his eyes. Sleep. Alas Rosethorn wouldn’t let him. She had things like “standards” and “healthy non student sleep schedules”.

But she had tea. So he couldn’t in good faith say no. 

At least he knew part of the magic was from a stitch witch...WAIT A MINUTE. 

A STITCH WITCH. 

WEAVING MAGIC. 

Oh this would be...very very troubling. 

It seemed to all be spilling from the noble’s castle. 

Maybe he could even convince them to not spend all this magic for the days she would need all of it. 

If it was a human, that was. 

He was beginning to have doubts on even that assumption. 

The Nobles, of course, were polite and yet colder than any prank had been at the academy, ice coming nowhere near the sheer coldness their upturned noses had, and he sighed, waiting. 

* * *

Sandry was with Tris, until she saw something interesting. 

Patterns, sweeping the streets. 

Great braids of pattern, tightly woven. 

Shining bright out her window. 

Tris looked at her with just a giddy a look, the excitement of figuring out more of what the hell was happening intriguing her. 

Sandry just enjoyed the something getting closer. 

Roach appeared, apparently interested in it as well. (Could he do that? How rude to just do it now.)

They saw two mages sit down, with magic woven so tight and clear that Sandry could see the exact weavings that formed their designs. The green magic was already familiar patterns to Roach’s, and he said as much with how familiar it seemed. 

But the Man’s magic, the pattern practically entranced Sandry. And so she took he charm, and some of the silver thread she saw lying around, and attempted to replicate the knots and braids that formed the man’s magic. 

She let her magic burn through the strings like she did at the marketplace, a smile on her face, as she weaved the same pattern into her own bracelet. 

  
  


Niko wasn’t quite sure what the proper response to… THIS was. Suddenly he could feel magic poking at him like it had never done before, prickling and running inside his eyes, unable to be seen (maybe because he didn’t have a mirror) but giving him a migraine nonetheless. Then the magic sight faded, or better said separated from itself, and suddenly he felt like he was back in first year, barely able to see magic. But it lasted but an instant, as the fraying moved on analyzing other parts of his magic. 

Frankly, he was terrified. And he couldn’t seem to find the source anymore, all the threads across town suddenly forming a much tighter pattern. 

A tent of light. Blinding him. 

This is GREAT. 

HE LOVED MESSING WITH THE GREAT SKY WHEEL. 

It should be noted he didn’t get anything done the rest of the day. 

  
  


_ “Hey, little miss threads, why are they snapping?” _

_ “What do you mean, snapping?” _

_ “Well, the thread you have in your hands? Its breaking out. It looks like my clothes if I’m honest.” _

_ “Roach! Your clothes look much worse be real.” _

_ “The great Trisanda DARING to lower herself to drag a street rat? You’re right this IS fun!” _

_ “Hmmm… perhaps it would snap less if I tried this?” _

The pattern was a bit different, and used a few threads Tris and Briar provided (roots to ground the vision and wind to carry it, some whispers in the magic told her) as the braids changes to be slightly more familiar like the one on her arm, the threads weaving and turning and lengthening this time, not breaking. 

They were threads she noticed, as she could see them. 

All of them. 

Quite frankly she was appalled at her own mess, she needed to clean up all the strings lying around! 

_ “Oh wait. This is weird. Oh wow that is weird to see. Nice job, you made us hallucinate!” _

_ “OH GOD I SEE PEOPLE ON THE WIND NOW, I WILL NEVER BE FREE!” _

_ “Oh we are going to have fun! I know we will!” _

Roach wished he had a better name because he doubted he could quite market Roach the Seer. 

* * *

  
  


Quite frankly, Rosethorn wanted to scream. 

Twice Niko has been useless, and she had to wait at a noble’s waiting room for NOTHING because APPARENTLY THE MAGIC DISSECTED HIS MAGIC? Quite frankly she needed a break. At Winding Circle. With Lark. And her plants. And tea. 

A lot of tea. 


End file.
